permaculture

[lbsaltzman@aol.com]

This is a great movement. Rosalind Creasey is an extremely important 
landscape designer.  Everybody planning on doing a front yard edible 
landscape should look at her books. It is important to not turn neighbors off 
at first and her designs for edible landscapes are beatiful.


-----Original Message-----
From: mIEKAL aND <dtv@mwt.net>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>; Midwestpermaculture 
<midwestpermaculture@yahoogroups.com>; dreamtime@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 7:22 pm
Subject: [permaculture] Growing front-yard food (AP)



Growing front-yard food can rile neighbors

   •   STORY HIGHLIGHTS
   •   Shady backyards send vegetable patches to front yard
   •   Some gardeners hope for more WWII-style victory gardens
   •   Some municipal codes limit percentage of yard that isn't trees or  
rass
   •   Gardeners save money, make friends with shared food
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/07/24/veggie.patch.ap/ 
ndex.html
NEW YORK (AP) -- A dedicated group of vegetable gardeners is ripping  
ut their front lawns and planting dinner.
Their front-yard kitchen gardens, with everything from vegetables to  
erbs and salad greens, are a source of food, a topic of conversation  
ith the neighbors and a political statement.
Leigh Anders, who tore up about half her front lawn four years ago  
nd planted vegetables, said her garden sends a message that anyone  
an grow at least some of their food. That task should shift from  
gribusiness back to individuals and their communities, said Anders,  
f Viroqua, Wisconsin.
"This movement can start with simply one tomato plant growing in  
ne's yard," she said.
While people have been growing food in their backyards forever, front- 
ard vegetable gardens are a growing outlet for people whose  
ackyards are too shady or too small, as well as those who want to  
pread their beliefs one tomato at a time.
Many hope their gardens will revive the notion of victory gardens,  
hich by some estimates provided 40 percent of America's vegetables  
uring World War II.
The topic has gotten more buzz nationally as bloggers chronicle their  
xperiences and environmentalists have scrutinized the effects of  
hemicals and water used to grow lawns. A book called "Food Not  
awns," published last year, inspired several offshoot groups.
Fritz Haeg, an artist and architect, has done yards in Kansas,  
alifornia and New Jersey as part of a project called "Edible Estates."
Haeg, who is working on a book, due out in 2008, called "Edible  
states: Attack on the Front Lawn," says he's been overwhelmed by the  
esponse. He gets hundreds of e-mails every month from people who  
ant to be next.
"People are obsessed with their homes, creating these cocoons that  
solate them," he said. "This project is about reaching out, getting  
hem connected to their streets."
Some of the neighbors are less than thrilled. Some municipal codes  
imit the percentage of a yard that can be planted with anything  
ther than trees and grass.
"Especially in the first three years, I got a lot of code  
iolations," said Bob Waldrop of Oklahoma City. He planted his corner  
ot almost entirely with fruit trees, berry bushes and vegetables.
"Now that the plantings have matured, it's pretty," he said. "It  
asn't so pretty the first couple years."
hannon McBride, 47, of Huntsville, Alabama, kept grass borders  
round her front-yard vegetable beds.
"We promised our neighbor we wouldn't grow corn, because that looks  
ind of tacky," she said.
The neighbor also thought tomatoes looked "untidy," so McBride and  
er husband are growing bell peppers, carrots, chives, herbs, two  
inds of beans, beets, okra, lettuce and cucumbers. Her corn is off  
o the side of the house.
An anonymous complaint about Karen Baumann's front-yard garden in  
acramento, California led to a fight by local gardeners against the  
ity's landscaping code, which stated that gardens could take up no  
ore than 30 percent of the front yard.
After a public hearing where Baumann's 11-year-old twin sons  
estified, dressed as a carrot and a tomato, the city changed the law.
I'm always asked, 'What will it look like in the winter?"' said  
osalind Creasy, a landscape designer who has been writing about  
dible landscaping for 25 years. "If you design it well and it has an  
erb garden, it will look fine. One of the dumbest things I see is  
ead lawns in the winter. They're brown for six months of the year.  
ow beautiful is that?"
Some front-yard gardeners say that ripping out the sod and putting in  
egetables gave the neighbors their first-ever excuse to speak to them.
It's kind of like having a dog," said Nat Zappia, 32, a graduate  
tudent. "No one talked to us until we had a dog."
Zappia turned the front yard of the home he and his wife rent in  
anta Monica, California, into a vegetable garden, with his  
andlord's permission. He estimates it supplies 35 to 40 percent of  
he food they eat.
Zappia took a master gardening class at the East Los Angeles  
niversity of California extension program that was focused on  
rowing food. Other gardeners were inspired by books they've read,  
uch as "Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture" and "The  
ear I Ate My Yard."
The gardens don't cost much to plant. Zappia estimates he spent about  
100 on the garden and says he and his wife save about $200 to $300 a  
ear on their food costs.
Waldrop, in Oklahoma City, said the garden's organic fruit allowed  
im to eat in a way he could never afford if he bought everything at  
he grocery store.
"It's like money growing in your yard," he said.
Creasy has a 1,000 square-foot edible garden that surrounds her Los  
ltos, California home. Among the things she grows: Wheat, sesame,  
aprika peppers and alpine strawberries.
Every July 4, as part of her neighborhood block party, she harvests  
heat, lays it down on a tarp on her driveway, covers it with a cloth  
nd has all the neighbors do what she calls, "the tennis shoe twist"  
o thresh it.
Next, she puts it in a deep wheelbarrow and blows off the chaff with  
n electric leaf blower. Then she grinds it with an attachment for  
er mixer, bakes bread and serves it to the neighbors, warm from the  
ven.
"It's like a sacrament," she said.
Creasy also keeps eight hens and one rooster in her yard and grows  
orrel to feed them.
"I would say they're visited at least once a day by some child," she  
aid. Her garden gives kids what grandparents gave children during a  
ore rural time, Creasy said.
"I remember my grandfather slaughtering a chicken and showing me the  
nsides where the egg was growing. I remember finding a potato," she  
aid. "There's a reality to it that sitting and watching TV and  
atching video games don't have."
And it's a reality people can plant and cultivate themselves, she said.
"People tell me they went to Tuscany and ate outside under a grape  
rbor," Creasy said. "Well, they can grow their own grapes in their  
ard... People want meaning in their lives; you don't have to go to  
uscany to get it."
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